Then she began, and said, "Truly, sir, my want of experience is that
which makes me covet to be in silence, and that also that filleth me
with fears of coming short at last. I cannot tell of visions and
dreams as my friend Christiana can, nor know I what it is to mourn
for my refusing of the counsel of those that were good relations."
INTERPRETER. "What was it then, dear heart, that hath prevailed with
thee to do as thou hast done?"
MERCY. "Why, when our friend here was packing up to be gone from our
town, [the city of Destruction,] I and another went accidentally to
see her. So we knocked at the door and went in. When we were within,
and seeing what she was doing, we asked her what she meant. She said
she was sent for to go to her husband; and then she up and told us
how she had seen him in a dream, dwelling in a curious place, among
immortals, wearing a crown, playing upon a harp, eating and drinking
at his Prince's table, and singing praises to him for the bringing
him thither. Now methought, while she was telling these things unto
us, my heart burned withm ran. And I said in my heart, 'If this be
true, I will leave my father and my mother, and the land of my
nativity, and will, if I may, go along with Christiana.'
"So I asked her further of the truth of these things, and if she
would let me go with her; for I saw how that there was no dwelling,
but with the danger of ruin, any longer in our town. But yet I came
away with a heavy heart; not for that I was unwilling to come away,
hut for thai so many of my relations were left behind. And I am come
with all my heart, and will, if I may, go with Christiana to her
husband and his King."
INTERPRETER. "Thy setting out is good, for thou hast given credit to
the truth; thou art a Ruth, who did, for the love she hare to Naomi
and to the Lord her God, leave father and mother, and the land of
her nativity, to come out and go with a people that she knew not
before. 'The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given
thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to
trust.'"